“There was part of the trip where they took us ice fishing, and I actually saw a moose and a bear,” he said. “It was like being inside of a National Geographic film. I’d love to go back there sometime just as a tourist so I can really see the land.”
We got off the elevator and walked down the hall to my room. I stopped and turned toward him, smiling. I reached up and kissed him gently on the cheek and reached for the door handle.
“I had a really nice time,” I said. “Thank you for teaching me how to ski and then keeping me company.”
“Do you think that I could get your number?” he asked, with a strangely shy tone to his voice. “I mean, I’d love to take you to dinner while you are in town.”
“Well, I think that we should leave it up to fate,” I said with a smile. “When we run into each other again, we will know that is the perfect time to go out.”
With that, I walked into my room and shut the door, standing there with my head pressed against the wood and butterflies lighting up my chest. Wow. Just wow.
Chapter 11
Cameron
I stood there and watched as this captivating woman closed the door. While I would have loved to go inside and continue forward with our conversation and obviously more, I was okay with the fact that she was making this a little harder than most girls that I met. There was something about her that made me want to try harder. There was an innocence about her eyes that made me know that she was guarded, having been burned by this ex-boyfriend. Though I knew this was not about being long-term, I wasn’t against drawing this out past one date, and that was something completely new for me.
I stood there by her door for a little while, my body leaning against the wall and my eyes blankly staring down the hall. I was replaying every way that her lips moved as she talked about her life back home and her dreams for the future. She was incredibly intelligent, I could tell, but she didn’t rub it in people’s faces at all.
After about ten minutes, I decided that I should probably head back down. Not only was it slightly creepy that I was still standing there, but I knew that Glen would be waiting for me with some choice words on how I just dipped out on him and left him to clean up alone from the class. Hopefully, when I told him about how I was feeling, he would cut me some slack, playing on his whole “happily ever after” mentality. There wasn’t a girl I considered my happily ever after, but Bea had definitely caught my attention in a way that I had never experienced before. I had been traveling a long time and had met a lot of different girls, but there was something different about this one, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
I turned and walked back toward the elevators, jumping onto one that a couple had just exited. The doors shut slowly, and I leaned up against the wall, crossing my arms in front of me and letting the smile that had been simmering below the surface finally come out in the open. When the doors opened, I got out and walked over to the bar where Glen was sitting, waiting for me to come back. He had actually walked in before I left, but he had sat down, seeing me talking to Bea, giving me a chance to talk to the girl I had been obsessing over for two days.
“Thanks for leaving me completely alone at the top of the mountain to put everything away,” he said, sipping his beer. “Was it worth it? I mean, I saw you talking to the girl.”
“Dude,” I said, letting out a deep breath, “It was more than worth it, no offense. There is something crazy special about that girl. She is a hell lot sexy, totally into me, but she is like a normal human being. She has dreams, aspirations, can hold a conversation, knows where Alaska is.”
“Wow,” Glen said, laughing. “That is way above the curve for ski resorts.”
“I know, right?”
“So, did you bang her?” he asked. “I mean, if you did, it must have been like the best ever because you were up there for like fifteen minutes at the most.”
“No, I did not bang her,” I said, laughing. “What are you like fifteen? We had a really good conversation, talked about like everything we could in that little span of time, and then I left her at her door.”
“You mean she turned you down,” he said, smiling.
“Yeah,” I replied chuckling. “But I was strangely okay with it. She thinks that if fate wants us to go back out, we will run into each other again.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I feel like maybe it’s time that I started to manipulate fate a little bit,” I said, laughing. “I mean, I can’t just meet this girl and then leave it up to chance. It just can’t happen.”
I sat there looking around the room at all the women that were coming into the bar. There were some hot ones, but every time I started to check one out, Bea would pop into my mind. Her fair skin, striking eyes, and perfect body were giving me chills down my spine. All I wanted to do was go knock on her door with champagne and strawberries, but I knew that she wouldn’t appreciate it. This girl was different than any other girl I had ever met. She was more down to earth and appreciated something like getting to learn how to ski. I had never felt appreciated before, except by the women I pleasured late at night in the resorts I stayed in. This was a completely different kind of feeling. She actually listened to what I was saying when I was talking, and she could tell that I was doing the same thing. That, in itself, was a huge deal since I was usually zoned out half way, just waiting for the moment where the woman would invite me back to her place.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get her off my mind. I could see Glen watching me struggle, his eyebrows furrowed together. It was like the wires weren’t connecting in my brain, and I was having a very difficult time being the carefree guy I usually was. There had never been a girl that had caught my attention to the point where I was no longer able to just let it go when I got turned down. Normally, I would just brush it off, figuring there were plenty more where she came from, but not with Bea. This was something completely different. I was so lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize a tall, hot brunette had walked up to us. I shook my head as Glen elbowed me.
“Huh?”
“I said, ‘hi, I’m Sylvia.’” She giggled. “I was wondering if you wanted to come over and sit with us, or I could buy you a drink, and we could talk.”
“I, uh, I have a drink,” I said, sounding completely idiotic. “I mean, thank you, Cynthia.”
“Sylvia,” Glen said, clearing his throat.
“I mean Sylvia,” I corrected myself. “Thank you, but I am going to just spend the evening with my best friend tonight.”
“All right,” she said, slightly snobbish.